The holidays can be stressful! Between all the social obligations, gift giving, travel and indulgences in food and alcohol, it can take a toll on our health. Fortunately, essential oils are amazing tools to help you survive the holiday season and stay on top of your holiday to-do’s.
Consider these 6 Essential Oils to Survive the Holidays and help navigate these 6 holiday challenges:
1) Manage Holiday Stress
The holidays can be really stressful. All of the activity, social commitments and family time can wipe you out. By taking a little time this holiday season to pamper yourself and support your ability to manage stress, you will be making a significant investment in a healthy future.
As you may know, stress can be a reaction to any physical, emotional, psychological or environmental stimulus – including everything from the financial stress of gift buying, physical stress from too much food and drink to the emotional stress of coordinating with family. Stress triggers the release of your stress hormones, like cortisol, shifting your body into high alert “fight or flight” to free up all your available energy and resources to escape the perceived threat. As a result, your ability to digest, heal, detoxify, anti-inflame and mount an immune response are diminished in the face of stress. Supporting the organs and regions of the brain involved in your stress response, including Adrenal®, Hypothalamus™, Parasympathetic® and Circadian Rhythm® can help you stay more resilient in the face of stress. Read more about Essential Oils for Stress Support HERE.
2) Reduce Hangover Symptoms
Alcohol consumption always seems to increase during the holiday season, but that does not mean you need to suffer increases in hangover symptoms. Essential oils are great tools to help you minimize the damage of alcohol consumption and reduce hangover symptoms.
To help reduce the impact of alcohol, it helps to preventatively apply Liver™ and Gall Bladder™ oils over your liver/gall bladder (right side of the body under your breast) before bed as it will help them process and eliminate more of the toxins in the alcohol while you sleep so you wake up feeling more refreshed and less hung over. Drinking ample water or Coconut Water will also keep you hydrated to prevent headaches often associated with hangovers.
If you wake up with a pounding head or queasy tummy, these essential oils can help ease the symptoms.
Nausea: Peppermint™ oil can instantly reduce nausea, either as a single oil or as part of the Digest™ blend. Just smell or massage a tiny bit around your belly button or lower back for immediate relief. The Gall Bladder™ blend over your gall bladder (right side of the body under your breast) also helps reduce nausea and headaches.
Headaches: Anti Inflammatory™ blend applied to the temples and sides of the neck help reduce the blood vessels that are causing that pounding. Parasympathetic® blend applied to the temples or vagal nerve (behind the ear lobe on the mastoid bone) can also reduce headaches and general malaise. Peppermint™ can also help relieve stabbing headaches. Just dilute a few drops on rub on your temples or back of your head.
Ongoing Detoxification: In addition to Liver™ and Gall Bladder™ blends, Lymph™ blend helps to move toxins out of the body, relieving headaches and increasing energy and vitality. Read more about Essential Oils for Hangover Support HERE.
3) Stay Healthy During Holiday Travel
Holiday travel can take a toll on your immune system. From the person coughing or sneezing on you on the plane to the toxic cleaning supplies or mold in many hotel rooms, it can be a challenge to stay healthy during holiday travel. Immune Support™ makes an ideal travel partner to help you offset the coughing and sneezing of those around you. Just rub a few drops of Immune Support™ on the bottom of your feet to prevent illness. Also consider Parasympathetic® to keep your digestive system healthy and regular during holiday travel. Finally, if you’re traveling through different time zones, consider Circadian Rhythm® to help you keep your body clock on track. Read more about Essential Oils for Holiday Travel HERE.
4) Support Healthy Boundaries
As fun and exciting as it can be to attend every holiday party and indulge in every holiday outing or adventure, it’s important to carve in a little self-care and nurture. As a classic introvert, I often feel overwhelmed during the holiday season and our Small Intestine Support™ blend really helps me to maintain good boundaries.
As you probably know, the the small intestine plays a critical role in the digestion process, absorbing and assimilating key nutrients while preventing harmful pathogens and toxins from entering the body. On an emotional level, the small intestine plays a similarly discerning role with emotions, helping to understand experiences and determine healthy and appropriate relationships and boundaries. Small Intestine Support™ blend supports the healthy functioning of the small intestine as it sorts and transforms food, feelings and ideas into useful ingredients for the body/mind. It also helps correct imbalances where you are overly in tune with other’s criticism, feelings or opinions at the expense of your own. Read more about Essential Oils for Boundaries HERE.
5) Reduce Holiday Bloat
It’s easy to over-indulge in rich food and drink during the holiday season. It may taste great on the way down, but can also leading to discomfort and bloating. Bloating often indicates a deficiency in stomach acid or enzymes which are often only released when the body is in the Parasympathetic “Rest and Digest” state. Applying Parasympathetic® behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone before meals helps to drop you into the Parasympathetic state where your body can produce adequate acid and enzymes for digestion and avoid bloat and discomfort. Read more about Essential Oils for the Parasympathetic State HERE.
6) Don’t Neglect Your Sleep
With all the holiday excitement, who has time to sleep. Right? Wrong!
Restful sleep, meaning both your ability to fall asleep and to stay asleep, is critical for your health. It allows time for your body to rest and repair, detoxify, balance blood sugar levels, burn calories and reset our energy reserves. Without restful sleep, you might feel fatigued and our body compensates with cortisol spikes, sugar cravings and other tricks to keep us awake and functioning.
To help fall asleep in the midst of holiday excitement, consider Circadian Rhythm® to help trigger the natural release of the sleep hormone melatonin. If you wake up in the middle of the night, it could be related to:
- Blood Sugar Sleep Issues: Sudden drops in blood sugar during the sleep cycle can cause the body to release cortisol (a stress hormone) that in turn wakes us up and makes us feel wide awake. To help sleep through the night, consider Pancreas™, especially when you wake up and feel so wide awake that you could go clean the kitchen. Just smelling the Pancreas™ oil can help balance the pancreas enough to allow the body to naturally fall back asleep.
- Detoxification Overload: According to Chinese Medicine, each organ has a time of the day/night where it does its thing, and waking between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. is “liver time”. This often reflects an overload in body’s ability to detoxify from toxins or emotions like anger, frustration or resentment. Unlike blood sugar night waking, liver and gall bladder trigger awakenings are often accompanied by a feeling of grogginess and clients find it easier to fall back asleep. For night-time waking due to liver issues or gall bladder issues, Liver™ (which also helps prevent hang overs), and Gall Bladder™.
- Hormonal Issues: Hormonal ups and downs from menstruation, pregnancy, and midlife fluctuations can impact sleep. For example, the hormone progesterone promotes restful sleep and a drop in estrogen can leave you more vulnerable to stress. Similar to blood sugar events, hot flashes are also caused by a rush of cortisol that alerts your mind and wakes you up. For night-time waking due to hormonal issues, consider Hypothalamus™ to support hormonal messages, Hormone Balance™, Estrogen Balance™, and Gall Bladder™.
Read more about Essential Oils for Sleep HERE.
Resources:
- Adrenal® available here
- Anti Inflammatory™ available here
- Circadian Rhythm® available here
- Digest™ available here
- Estrogen Balance™ available here
- Gall Bladder™ available here
- Hormone Balance™ available here
- Hypothalamus™ available here
- Immune Support™ available here
- Liver™ available here
- Lymph™ available here
- Pancreas™ available here
- Parasympathetic® available here
- Peppermint™ available here
- Small Intestine Support™ available here
